Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-03-18

from waist to waist and catch them from
the return wave.
They are saved Hurrah hurrah hur-
rah But--tchoty Man missingY The
minister Oar snapped Worked like
tiger
A girl is rushing along the shore in the
weird freight, reaching out arms toward
some object in the waters. 1t is going out
II is tossed back on the next high wave.
God only knows how she saved it-with
what superhuman energy she dashed at the
waves and saved it from their grasp. God
only knows how loves instinct led her with
loves sharp eyes, 10 sec that one point at
the one instant when it was possible to save
She drags him up from the seething wa
ters beyond their reach on shore. She slips
off the heavy coat she is wearing aud wraps
it about him. She places her hand on his
heart, her face to his face
They find her there and carry him TO her
fathers house, and lay him down on the
warm hearthstone before the blazing wood
fire in the room where yesternight the spin
ming wheel Stood and Mary smiled dreami-
ly as she listened to its hum.
The girl in her blue dress clinging wet
about her, kneels by his side She has torn
the white kerchief from her throat TO wipe
the water from his face Her golden hair
hangs struggling and wet and stringy over
her shoulders. She bends over him and a
bit of her hair touches his cheek. They see
her lips move, they cannot hear her words.
John ~ she whispers
He opens his eyes, and looks up into her
face.
Priscilla !" he breathes.
Her father leads her away he has read
her secret in the white cheeks which forget
to blush, though all in the room may read
the beseeching of her eyes.
He is safe. She lies down in her cham
Der with a deep prayer of thankfulness.
She is too unstrung to sleep for many hours,
and when at last she does, it is TO start up
with a wild, gasping cry, as she sees a
wavewashed body tossed from billow TO
billow.
In the morning all meet at the breakfast
table, the minister looking well and hearty
as ever, and with something vibrating in
his voice and glancing in his eyes which has
not been there before. Mary, pale and
rather proud-looking, with dark lines un-
der her eyes, but very lovely in her cardin-
al morning dress, with plain linen collar
and cuffs.
The captain is bluff and gruH and CHEEKY,
trying by his talk to hide his daughters 81
lentness Men have a real, rare delicacy.
as well as women.
Three men are there also from the wreck.
Rachel stalks about grimly, doing the hon
ors of the table, while inwardly she is
troubled at Mary's white face, and de
termines to dose her with catnip tea and
send her back to bed.
One of the men tells the story of the
wreck, and Mary is thankful that thus she
is saved from having to talk to the minis
ter. She cannot and she will not meet his
eye, for if she does she knows the tell-tale
blood will leap to her face Outwardly she
is pale and calm and naughty.
After breakfast she escapes to the kitch-
en-, and meekly takes the catnip tea rather
than struggle with Rachel, whose grim
sternness and frmness she knows of old ;
and she is curiously willing to slip off to
bed Not that she means to sleep, but the
minister will be gone when she goes down
stairs again.
She wakes up in the middle of the after
noon from a refreshing sleep, to find Rachel
by the bed with delicious omeet and toast
and tea
Then she dresses and slips down into the
little sitting-room a similar room to the
kitchen, only carpeted and with crimson
curtains for the freight to fall upon. She
hIDNS lllt men are All EpntS Abl ohS hVoi
her father out in the yard piling up wood
in the shed, and the house is perfectly still,
but for the quick stepping of Rachel across
the kitchen floor.
So she stands secure before the fire, with
hands spread out to the blaze. Again she
is a picture in her close fitting brown dress,
only relieved at wrist and throat by white
lace and the group of sweet-scented gerani-
UNI leaves she loves to wear for back
ground the warm crimson of the draperies.
The sun has dropped down beyond the
woods, and only the fire flashes light the
room. What a contrast and comfort this
evening TO the storm and terror of last
night Her face pales and she catches her
breath.
Suddenly two hands drop on her Shout
ders, and a masterful, happy face is bent
above her. She is turned gently but firmly
around, and in her surprise looks up in the
minister's face, and a teazing smile is there.
Priscilla !" Oh, how the name sounds
from his lips Priscilla, l am John Alden.
Now say your lines again as you did last
night, and look in my face and mean them
for me ~
Il will not and hate you, John (before
she knows the word has slipped out Endi-
cote I'll never, never, never forgive YOU"
But the touch of those hands is thrilling
her through and through, and she Is not
quite master of herself.
'Why You sdred my ien'
"You have Inundated me beyond for
giveness."
but you iciH forgive y
His hand is slipped under her chin, and
her face lifted up so he can read all its
meaning
Haughtily she gathers up all her energies
to resist him but she cannot slip from
those OBTAINING hands. Her face is pale and
desperate. Her lips part.
'You do forgive ~
Some strong vibration in the voice-and
the words sound half strangled in the
throat-makes her glance up to face un-
naturally calm. His grasp is wounding her.
A quivering of her lips, flood of tender
ness sweeping all her face, yielding of the
whole tense form, then-womanlike,-
"Yes-John l'-Boston Home journal.